Chiropractor, Acupuncture, Oriental Medicine, Greater Bangor, Maine

Lyme disease risk likely higher than you think

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease and is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admits to over 300,000 new cases per year! In reality, as we have seen in our office percentage wise, we believe it’s much greater than that and the prevalence is rising.

Since national surveillance began in 1982, the number of annual Lyme cases reported has increased nearly 25 fold. The disease is also spreading geographically.

Between 1993 and 1997, 43 counties across the U.S. had a high incidence of Lyme disease. By 2012, the number had skyrocketed to 182 as reported by TIME Magazine. According to the CDC, Lyme is not only rampant in the hotspots, but is rapidly spreading across the country. IIn the northeast alone, Lyme has increased 320 percent. It is now appearing in many states where it never had been previously recorded.

Lyme disease is a unique disease with many diverse symptoms.

It is caused by the infectious spirochetal germ Borrelia burgdorferi. Its cousin germs, Bartonella henselae, Babesia microti, and the bacteria of the Ehrlichia species cause related diseases. There are over 100 species of Borrelia and 100 species of Babesia.

Thesegermsallhavecharacteristics that are similar to the spirochete that causes syphilis, Treponima pallidium. Therefore, they are corkscrew shaped which enables them to burrow deep into the connective tissue. To add insult to injury, these bugs are pleomorphic, meaning they can change shape at will, go flat, and burrow deeper into the tissue, then go round. They can also live intracellularly, which is why they evade antibiotics. They also bind to the heavy metals in your system and create an armored protective shell. Antibiotics cannot penetrate this shell.

Lyme is spread by ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, saliva, breast milk and can be sexually transmitted, according to Richard Horowitz, MD, Hyde Park, New York and DesBIO Homeopathics. It has recently been found to also be transmittable in the saliva of other animals including pet dogs.

Interestingly, one of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable is that the spirochete is capable of infecting white blood cells. Since lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure and are infected, they will not respond to an infection appropriately. The worse the infection, the less likely it will show up on a blood test. The standard Elisa test is no better than 50/50, according to Richard Horowitz, M.D.

Johns Hopkins says it misses 55 percent of Lyme positive patients. The CDC and the New York State Department of Health says it missed 81 percent of the people that did not have a bullseye rash.

There are three phases in Lyme disease.

Bite Phase: The patient may have a classic bull’s eye rash (only seen in 25 percent of cases). Arthritis symptoms are very common.

Latent Dormant Phase: Minimal symptoms and the rash and arthritis seem to improve.

Full-Blown Phase: The disease returns in its full-blown glory as it attacks the nervous system and the immune system with many diverse and varied symptoms.

One of the most important aspects of developing a Lyme disease treatment protocol is to strengthen and restore the immune system. Lyme disease bacteria and associated neurotoxins are immunosuppressive. Since homeopathy stimulates the body’s response to the disease, it is basically able to “jumpstart” the immune system toengageinthefightagainsttheinfection. It gets to the root of the issue not by generically boosting the whole immune system, but instead, by specifically targeting immune functions that relate exactly to the disease at hand.

A combination of homeopathy, Chinese herbs and glandulars has proven successful for patients for the last nine years.

The word “homeopathy” is derived from two Greek words: homoios which means “similar” and pathos which means “suffering.” Homeopathy’s basic premise is called the “principle of similars,” and it refers to recurrent observation and experience that a medicinal substance will elicit a healing response for the specific syndrome of symptoms (or suffering) that it has been proven to cause when given in overdose to a healthy person.

The beauty of the principle of similars is that it not only initiates a healing response, but it encourages a respect for the body’s wisdom. Because symptoms represent the best efforts of our body in its defenses against infection or stress, it makes sense to utilize a medicine that helps and mimics this defense rather than that inhibits or suppresses it. The principle of similars may be one of nature’s laws that, when used well, can be one of our most sophisticated healing strategies.

Homeopathic medicine is so widely practiced by physicians in Europe that it is no longer considered “alternative medicine.” Approximately 30 percent of French doctors and 20 percent of German doctors use homeopathic medicines regularly, according to Dana Ullman, MPH, British Homeopathy Institute. Over 40 percent of British physicians refer patients to homeopathic doctors, and almost half of Dutch physicians consider homeopathic medicines to be effective (Fisher and Ward, 1994). The fact that the British Royal Family has used and supported homeopathy since the 1830s reflects its longstanding presence in Britain’s national health care system.

Homeopathic medicine also once had a major presence in American medical care and society. In 1900, there were 22 homeopathic Medical schools in the U.S., including Boston University, University of Michigan, New York Medical College, Hahnemann University, University of Minnesota, and even the University of Iowa. Further, many of America’s cultural elite were homeopathy’s strongest advocates, including Mark Twain, William James, John D. Rockefeller, Susan B. Anthony, Louisa May Alcott, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, HenryDavidThoreau,andHarrietBeecher Stowe, among others.

The principle is to regulate antibody production, upregulate immune response, re-pattern the body’s energy pathways, minimize clearing reaction, get better effects with multiple potencies and reverse dilutions, enforced by ultra-high potency follow-up support. One can expect positive outcomes for both chronic and acute infections. This is one of the most powerful homeopathic approaches to infection available.

The first step to determining an individualized protocol is determining what co-infections are also present.

Initial testing via acupuncture points takes about an hour, until satisfactory balance is achieved with Chinese herbs and homeopathic remedies. Depending on the length of the illness and number of co-infections, treatment generally takes six to eight months for full recovery.

Lyme Disease Symptoms:

Many Lyme symptoms, such as fatigue, cognitive impairment, joint pain, poor sleep, mood problems, muscle pain, and neurological presentations also occur in other diseases. Hence, the symptoms of Lyme disease significantly overlap those of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Many Lyme patients report being misdiagnosed with a different condition before being properly diagnosed with Lyme disease.

Double or blurry vision, vision changes, wandering or lazy eye, conjunctivitis (pink eye), oversensitivity to light, eye pain or swelling around the eyes, floaters/spots in the line of sight, red eyes.

EARS/HEARING

Decreased hearing, ringing or buzzing in ears, sound sensitivity, pain in the ears.